1. Field of the Invention
The present apparatus relates to harvesting crayfish. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus which has the unique ability to harvest crayfish within the confines of a pond and yet be self-propelled over the levees and banks from one pond to the next without the use of outside vehicular assistance.
2. General Background
A principal industry within the state of Louisiana is the raising and harvesting and selling of crayfish which are grown in vast quantities in the lower lying areas in "ponds" which are often acreage of land utilized in rice forming, which are flooded and are thriving with crayfish within the confines of the land area. In order to maintain the pond, i.e., the water confined within the area, dirt levees are constructed around the land area so that the crayfish may grow to full size and be harvested.
For the process engaged in harvesting the crayfish, what is normally entailed is a series of wire traps placed beneath the water surface of the pond in parallel rows throughout the acreage. The traps, once baited, allow the crayfish to crawl into the trap to get to the bait, but are so constructed that the crayfish can not exit the trap and are therefore caught within the confines to be harvested by the harvester. In order to facilitate the harvesting of the crayfish, numerous methods have been utilized, the most successful being a boat or the like .which is simply maneuvered between the traps while one occupant of the boat pulls the trap up, the other occupant guides the boat through the traps as their contents are harvested. What has evolved from that practice is a particularly constructed boat which includes often times front and rear mounted drive wheels which make contact with the bottom of the shallow pond and propel the boat along its course through the pond while the harvesting is taking place. This particular apparatus has been found to be most useful since it is able to be guided or run along the relatively straight path and can not "float" off course since the wheels are actually making contact with the bottom of the pond.
However, at the present time farmers who are using the aluminum flat boats do not have the ability to transport the boat from one pond to another since, in order to do so, one must cross the levees and often times the boat must be moved to a pond which is a distance away and therefore be transported over roads, bridges or fields. At the present time, harvesters drag their boats with tractors or transport them by trailers. This practice is very time consuming, often results in damage to the boat and requires additional manpower in order to somehow move the boat over the levees and onto the vehicle for transport.
In addition to the boats that were before described in the harvest of crayfish, several patents were obtained which relate to a boat type vehicle having wheels in one fashion or another. These patents are as follows:
U.S Pat. No. 2,960,056 issued to Puccinelli, entitled "Roadable Boats", relates to a boat which can be operated on both land and water without any change either in the propelling or the operating of the machine. In addition, it has the ability to likewise be towed as a trailer or driven into the water and operated as a motor boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,249 issued to Chase, entitled "Propeller, Rudder and Wheel Assembly For Boats" provides a combination propeller, rudder and wheel assembly for boats employing a propeller and intergrated wheel at each side of the boat, adapted for rotation between two positions wherein the wheels are lowered as the propeller and rudder are raised and vice-versa, facilitating operation of the boat on water or on land without a trailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,449,320 issued to Raimondi, entitled "Land And Water Vehicle", relates to improvement in the vehicle adapted to be used for land and water transportation wherein four (4) wheels are utilized for running on land, each of the wheels having two opposed paddles providing locomotion in water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,679 issued to Bozzano, entitled "Motor Boat Provided With Power Operated Retractable Wheels For Landing on Beaches", relates to a motor boat provided so that the hull of the boat is provided on its bottom with three (3) recesses disposed in a tricycle arrangement. Each housing a retractable land wheel shudders being provided operatively associated with a retractable wheels to close the wheel housing recess each time the wheels are retracted in the recesses in order to reestablish the continuity of the hull bottom.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,199 issued to Faxas, entitled "Jet Propulsion System For Amphibious Vehicle", presents a controlled water jet as the prime motive force when water born provides elimination of on-board pumps, uses one or more drive wheels or perferrably pairs of opposing drive wheels as axial flow impellers whereby water can be forced laterally inwardly or outwardly as the case may be through the drive wheel in a flow direction which is parallel to the axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,606,519 issued to Branco, entitled "Land And Water Vehicle", which is designed to resemble a boat having four (4) drive wheels provided with paddles to provide propulsion means for the vehicle when traveling on the water and also to provide drive means for the vehicle when traveling on land.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,446 issued to Cox, et al, entitled "Mobile Power Unit" provides a device which includes a source of power means engaged but with a travel surface to propel the source of the power enlongated handle assemblies extended forwardly. The source of power between which the operator is situated and means convenient to the operator to control the source of power in a breaking assembly incorporated with the unit.